But instead of focusing how good they really are, I want to get out ahead of the inevitable colossal headache we must endure every year: the hockey world losing their collective minds over the playoff format.
The playoffs are where the sentiment of everything just being so darn unfair for poor old Toronto really comes out in full force in recent years as they are inevitably drawn against teams in the mighty Atlantic division. Yes, the same Atlantic division was criticized less than two years ago for being too easy as the Senators waltzed their way through the first two rounds with largely the same roster that would finish 30th overall the following season, but that doesn't fit the narrative so ignore that. The harsh reality of the NHL is that there is a large amount of luck involved. Ottawa caught the Atlantic in a down year while the Leafs are coming into their own as Tampa and Boston assert themselves as perennial powerhouses as well. While it would be interesting to see the reaction if the roles were reversed, seeing Toronto squeak their way through a lesser quarter of the bracket while Ottawa was the team struggling against a pair of giants, that is not the point of this article.
No, this article is going to surrender the the cries of Toronto fans and media alike, we are going to make the NHL fair.
If the second round of the playoffs started today (and there were no upsets in round one, a lofty assumption in today's NHL) Toronto would face Tampa Bay. Now, if we were to abandon the divisional format, Toronto would face the third best team in the conference, that would be the Boston Bruins. Is Tampa Bay better than Boston? Absolutely. But it is important to remember what we are sacrificing. When the NHL created this format to go into place for the 2014 playoffs (as a result of the 2013 realignment brought on by Atlanta's move to Winnipeg, after the Jets had already played 2 seasons in the Southeast division, in true NHL fashion) the intention was to ignite rivalries. While Toronto-Boston is certainly a rivalry, we would've seen it in the first round in the current divisional system anyways while Tampa and Toronto could kickstart what should be a great rivalry in the second round. By having a third Atlantic team advance to round two means we lose a potential great matchup: Washington-Pittsburgh (more on that near the end). But no matter, the NHL must be above all things - especially fun - FAIR.
We could take this a step further, and use the proposed 1-16 format, but I won't do that. Not because it is too extreme, but because it ignores the greatest problem there is: the playoffs themselves. Last week, Twitter user @DTMAboutHeart floated the idea of scrapping the playoffs altogether. The idea was widely ridiculed and the tweet promptly deleted. Now, I am no fan of the idea of getting rid of the playoffs because they are FUN. But when it comes to fairness, if that is what some people so dearly want, it is clear that the playoffs must go. We already have a grueling 82 game season where we often get a pretty clear picture of who the best team in the league is. Ask any fan who the best team has been this season and all but the delusional won't think twice before saying it is Tampa Bay. But ask the very same fans who will win the Cup, and you'll probably hear many say Tampa, but they will have to consider it carefully and you'll certainly inevitably wind up hearing countless variations of "well there's just so many good teams nowadays..."
So we're going eliminate the playoffs, but we're also going to take it a step further, we're going to eliminate divisions, and conferences, and have every team play every other team twice - one home, one away - just like the English Premier League does which, despite its lack of parity which flies against everything North American fans have come to view as fair, it is fair in the sense that the best team seldom does not win a championship in any given year.
We'll be using the scores from the 2017-18 season as they are, in cases where multiple games are played between the same teams in the same location (for the purpose of this exercise, International Series games will be counted as home games just like any other) the tiebreaker will be which games the days of rest between the two teams is the closest, followed by which game sees the away team having the most total rest. This is because the season is going to be cut from 82 games plus playoffs to a mere 60. This would lead to teams likely playing about one game during the week and one on the weekend in order to stretch the season on for as long as possible and maintain interest. The final tiebreaker will simply be whichever game came first as less injuries as well as general wear and tear will provide the most accurate representation of the quality of the teams.
Finally, we will be using the 3-2-1 point system like the IIHF does. This is because the loser point is stupid. The 3-2-1 system isn't perfect, and moving the goalposts after the season is complete may affect the way games were played, but the 3-2-1 system better rewards the actual quality of play (ROW will also be kept as the tiebreaker in order to discourage shootouts). Of course, I cannot remove puck luck, hot streaks, or any of the oddities of the games themselves from the equation, that will have to remain as part of the sport. So, without further ado, I present to you the "fair" version of the NHL:
Click here to see the whole experiment, along with individual scores.
Right away we see a change, as President's Trophy winners Nashville fall to 4th, due their Western dominance being made less significant. Montreal, for example, finished dead last despite finishing ahead of Ottawa and Buffalo, who both played the exact same opponents (with the exception of themselves), in the real season. Oftentimes these standings are simply the result of the wrong game being struck from the schedule. For example, Edmonton won in Vegas 3-2 in OT on January 13th, but because Vegas was rested and the Oilers were playing on back-to-back nights, the game that was counted was the February 15th contest where both teams had had a day of rest, Vegas won that game 4-1. In this case, the system was intended to help Edmonton but instead hurt them.
Hockey is a game of bounces. Oftentimes, the best team does not win. The playoffs are a crapshoot. These are all true, but as hockey fans we need to accept this. For years, the Washington Capitals had dominated the regular season but could not get past the Penguins in the second round. This created what could be called the best rivalry of this era, and even though Washington fans were made miserable, the passion that arose from those series became a part of the identity of the teams and the sport itself. Maybe someday soon, the Maple Leafs will win the Stanley Cup and the memories of those hard losses to Boston and Tampa Bay will add to the jubilation of fans and players alike. But maybe they won't, in which case, they can still look back at the time where they were oh-so-close and reminisce about the old days, like Ottawa fans do about the mid-2000s, or like Toronto fans themselves would do about 1993 before this team came around.
It's fun to analyze the games and which teams are the best, I had a blast compiling all of the scores for this piece that you're reading right now! But at the end of the day, things are just gonna happen. We're going to watch this great sport and one team will end this season by lifting the Stanley Cup. My scenario had Washington finishing 7th in a "fair" league and few if any foresaw them winning it all as the playoffs began. But none of that matters because it was one hell of a scene to see Alex Ovechkin finally lift the Cup. Hockey is about moments, not absolute fairness, and we need to be better at embracing the inherent randomness of the sport and not call for dramatic changes that would ever so slightly move the needle towards what we have determined to be right.
